Friday, August 23, 2013

Driver who dropped body on road arrested...... Hearse door opens and dumps coffin on road

The driver of a hearse who accidentally dropped a dead body of a man in Kandy town while transporting the body to a funeral house is to be charged for causing disrespect to the body, a senior police office said.

The hearse belonging to the Nuwara Mal Salawa in Kandy was driving past the Kandy clock tower when the body had fallen off and a few meters away the coffin had also fallen off on the road, police quoted eyewitnesses as saying.

The hearse had proceeded without the body while the police had to call for another hearse and transported the body back to the undertaker.

A spokesman for the undertaker said the rear door had opened after its lock had snapped and the body had slipped off, however he was not sure how the coffin had opened up as it has a separate lock. "It is probably that they had failed to lock the coffin", he added.

"The driver also had his assistant, but had not realised that the body had fallen off until they reached the home in Katugastota", he said.

Police said they arrested the driver and had later been given bail.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Legal) Gamini Dissanayake said ‘Under existing laws there is provision to charge such person for causing disrespect to a dead person'.

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